Ultrafast catalytic reduction of organic pollutants using ternary zinc–copper–nickel layered double hydroxide

Abstract

Water is the utmost essential commodity for the support of life process in animals. In recent decades, rapid industrialization and uncontrolled agricultural practices have led to increased level of toxic pollutants in groundwater, including organic pollutants (dyes, nitroarene compounds, antibiotics, etc.), inorganic pollutants (heavy metals, nanoparticles, etc.), and pesticides, posing a serious threat to human health and the environment. Although various technologies such as adsorption, photocatalysis, reverse osmosis, filtration, sedimentation, flocculation, and precipitation are available for the elimination of toxic pollutants from wastewater, issues such as their cost and efficacy limit their usage. Recently, catalysis has been found to be the most effective approach since it exhibits significant capability to eliminate almost all the pollutants and offers the benefit of simple design and low initial cost. In the present study, ternary zinc–copper–nickel layered double hydroxide (ZnCuNi‐LDH) synthesized using facile acid hydrolysis method was employed as an efficacious heterogeneous catalyst for the reduction of NACs (para‐nitrophenol and para‐nitroaniline) and degradation of organic azo dyes (methyl orange, amaranth, and brilliant black). ZnCuNi‐LDH exhibited superior catalytic activity for the reduction of all five model pollutants with reduction efficiency of more than 95% within a short time span of 5 min. Therefore, keeping in view the layered structure, high specific surface area, and remarkable catalytic performance, ZnCuNi‐LDH holds immense potential for the large‐scale catalytic degradation of refractory pollutants.